Lucas Crawford is pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University, where he will continue his work on transgender architecture by studying "the Transgender Life of New York City's High Line Park." Lucas has defended his dissertation, "Archive/Transgender/Architecture: Woolf, Beckett, diller scofidio + renfro" in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta in the Fall of 2011. His scholarly work can be found in Women's Studies Quarterly, the Routledge Queer Studies Reader, English Studies in Canada, Seattle Journal for Social Justice, Transgender Migrations, and other book collections.

As a poet and performer, Lucas represented highland Nova Scotia in the 2005 CBC Poetry Faceoff, won the 2004 Atlantic Writing Competition for Poetry, founded a drag king troupe in Edmonton in 2007, and has had work appear in The Nashwaak Review and Other Voices. As an activist, Lucas has organized queer responses to police violence, been a columnist for Vue Weekly, written about the limits of hate crime legislation, organized community panels and actions, and often speaks publicly. The City of Edmonton honoured Lucas as the recipient of the 2010 Human Rights Award.

Experience as a Trudeau Scholar

The Trudeau Scholarship allowed me the time and freedom to reach out beyond the walls of both the academy and of my city. I was able to bring renowned speakers and scholars to Edmonton and to participate in larger debates about transgender. From queer conferences in Los Angeles to readings at feminist bookstores in New York and to performance art in obscure Montreal lofts, my tenure as a Trudeau scholar often caused me to glance about at a room of fierce transgender thinkers and artists and wonder at my good fortune. As I research architecture, the travel funds of the Scholarship were particularly useful: I did archival research in Montreal, studied buildings and parks in New York, and took part in crucial conversations in Vancouver, Toronto, and elsewhere. The financial support of the scholarship also granted me the time to focus on extra-curricular activities such as poetry, performance, community organizing, and activism.

My experiences in the Trudeau community encouraged me to sharpen my political acumen, clarify my position on many matters of public concern, and learn to better articulate radical politics to audiences of diverse backgrounds and beliefs. My concept of Canada as a nation changed throughout my four years as a scholar. I learned more about the history of dissent and struggle in this land and the many ways in which these challenges continue.

I leave the Foundation with a new cadre of friends and collaborators who impress me. The Trudeau Foundation network is a proud wide-reaching group of which I am happy to now be a part.